This strawberry cream pie is full of tart berry goodness, and a coconut flour shortbread crust that sings with a touch of vanilla cookie flavour. It was good!

I know you think I say that about all the things, but many a recipe doesn’t make it to the blog. I test a lot of stuff, and a lot of stuff doesn’t go the way I intended. This strawberry cream pie was a winner out of the gate. The crust is simple, 12 minutes to make and bake, and the filling is no bake. Whip it up, pour it in and done! Everything should be this easy.

You really can’t go wrong with this one and you could sub out the strawberries for blueberries, or raspberries, or even blackberries. Just remember if you do swap out the berries, the nutritional value will change.

Strawberry cream tart with a cookie shortbread crust

I got carried away with the strawberry topping because I like to make things pretty for the camera, but there’s no need to go all out.

This is an easy breezy dessert, perfect for a summer day. The oven won’t be on for hours, and the dessert itself is refreshingly cool.

A bit about the sweeteners

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Use your favorite 1:1 sugar substitute.

Powered is preferred over granular, as it blends better and has a nicer texture. Erythritol and xylitol also tend to get grainy when cold, but I found the powdered versions to do it much less. Granular works well in the crust. If granular is all you have, go ahead, it will work fine.

If you don’t have powdered erythritol or xylitol and only have granular, go ahead and give it a blast with a high-speed blender, or food processor. My favorite powdered sweetener by far is So Nourished Monk Fruit Blend, I find it has almost no aftertaste at all.

Swerve and stevia will work perfectly fine here as well as does any powdered erythritol or xylitol brand.

Just remember, xylitol is poisonous to dogs and cats, so if that’s your choice and you have little furry friends running around, be aware that it can be deadly for them.

A bit about the strawberries

So my market strawberries were not the sweetest. I actually found them quite tart. So my suggestion is to adjust the sweetener based on your taste.

This is the perfect summer dessert. When strawberries are in season, this dessert would shine. Softer, sweeter, juicier berries would make this recipe an event worth attending. Granted, even with my market berries, it was tasty, it just needed a touch more sweet to offset the tartness of my out of season berries.

How did I make that pretty pattern on the top of my cream pie?

Super easy, slice the berries down the centre about 1/8 of an inch thick. This is an approximation, I just sliced through 3 pints of strawberries fairly quickly, so my slices were not all perfect.

Place a full strawberry (save one of your best looking ones) upside down in the centre of the cream pie before it sets. Start at the outside of the cream pie and lay overlapping slices all around the outside rim. Once you reach where you started, start a new circle overlapping the previous row.

Continue until you reach the centre. A super simple method to take a simple cream pie and make it look pretty.

A bit about the strawberry cream pie crust

I used to love shortbread with all of my wee Scottish heart. So when I call this a shortbread crust, I am saying it was as close as I could get it. Is it shortbread? My Scottish grandma would say nay!

I would say… almost?

I am also sure my grandma would say shortbreads are not cookies and she would be right. Flour, sugar and butter make up a true shortbread, so I am taking liberties with this one.

But the crust does have that shortbread cookie feel, and I think the addition of vanilla takes it even further into cookie land. Kinda the best of both worlds.

If we can pretend cauliflower is pizza crust, we can hold our suspension of disbelief over my wannabe shortbread cookie crust!

A bit about the strawberry cream pie filling

The filling is the easiest thing in the world to make. Cream some cream cheese, add some pureed strawberries, cream cheese, and some gelatine and you have a great creamy base that sets up perfectly.

If you want you can add sliced strawberries to the filling. Since I was adding so many strawberries to the top, I decided not to, but if you want to, you absolutely can.

I didn’t add a lot of sweetener to this cream base, and it was only slightly sweet. If your berries are summer ripe, the sweetness is probably spot on. If you are using less than in-season strawberries, I would add 1/4 cup more sweetener to the cream filling.

I used an 11-inch tart pan, but I suggest using a 9 inch. The slices will be taller and the cream filling will shine.

Storage & Serving suggestions

So this one needs to be refrigerated for about 4 hours to set well enough to slice. It also needs to be kept cool. It will last for 3-4 days in the fridge, depending on the freshness of the berries. The berries will be the first to spoil, so the fresher the berries, the longer this one will last. This strawberry cream pie will serve 8-10 folks. Or one, if you hide it well enough in the fridge.

As far as the crust goes, this bad boy can be pre-cooked and frozen. This is a time saver. I baked a few of these crusts, as well as some tartlet shells just to keep them on hand. They are great for adding no-bake fillings, or custards, anything really.

A quick and easy strawberry cream pie. The crust is a coconut shortbread style crust, that is gluten and nut free. It marries very well with the creamy strawberry filling (it's no bake!), and fresh summer strawberry topping.

Nutrition Information:

Nutritional information for the recipe is provided as a courtesy and is approximate only. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site. Erythritol carbs (and sugar alcohols) are not included in carb counts as it has been shown not to impact blood sugar. Net carbs are the total carbs minus fibre.